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Saskatchewan Lawyer News

Judge finds military veteran not criminally liable for bomb threat

Timothy Steven Harris, a military veteran, was found to have no criminal responsibility in the email that he sent to social workers which stated "there is a bomb in the building."

Following the receipt of the email, the building which houses social services was emptied of employees while police searched for the bomb mentioned in Harris' email. However, they found nothing.

Harris testified that he had mistakenly worded his email. That he thought he wrote "the bomb is in the building," the word bomb in reference to himself and the word building referring to his growing issue with the social services.

The judge believed in the mental defence mounted by Jane Basinski, a defence lawyer in Saskatoon, because Harris is suffering from schizophrenia.

Harris admitted that he had not taken any medication at the time he penned the email.

The veteran sent the email because he got miffed with the social services' non-response to his earlier emails inquiring why he was not reminded of his annual review.

Basinski is asking for an absolute discharge for Harris while the Crown attorney wants conditions set to keep the public safe.

The review board will make a decision after a hearing to be held within a month and a half.

Bouncer gets jail after pleading guilty to aggravated assault

Posted Nov 10, 2014 on www.cbc.ca

It was supposed to be the first day of Scott Russell Denny's trial when he instead submitted a guilty plea to aggravated assault.

Denny, a nightclub bouncer, told the court that he overdid his mauling of Myles MacIntosh a few hours before the latter died.

MacIntosh, who was about to be married, was celebrating the upcoming big event of his life with his friends.

Unfortunately, in the wake of the celebration, he got separated from his friends and ended up at the pub crawl bus being managed by Denny.

The two, who have had a lot to drink, ended fighting each other with Denny giving MacIntosh a very bad beating.

Other people present tried to stop Denny but were not able to.

MacIntosh eventually left the bus, fell into the South Saskatchewan River and drowned.

For his admission, Denny, who was defended by Saskatoon lawyer Brian Pfefferle, was meted with a sentence of two years to be followed by a probation, also of two years.

Denny, however, only has a year remaining to serve after he was given credit for time spent on remand.

Man gets prison for break and enter, assault

Posted Sep 16, 2014 on www.leaderpost.com

Terrance Dustyhorn has been meted with a prison sentence of five years for submitting a guilty plea to break, enter and commit assault with a weapon.

Dustyhorn together with Christopher Ahenakew had gone to the house of a man whom he believed was providing his lady friend with morphine.

Dustyhorn said that he had already warned the man about it but when he didn't take heed, he decided to go and confront the victim.

He had hit the victim with a machete and although police found the victim bloodied, his injuries were not that severe.

Regina defence lawyer Noah Evanchuk said Dustyhorn had no intention of really harming or maiming the victim considering that he is larger than him.

Aside from admitting his crime, Dustyhorn also cleared Ahenakew, saying he had nothing to do with it.

Ahenakew submitted a guilty plea to being unlawfully in a dwelling house and was handed a six-month sentence to be served in the community and a year probation.

A visa would make it easier for adopted foreign children to get to Canada

Posted Aug 28, 2014 on www.thestarphoenix.com

It has been a year ago since the Halstead legally adopted a baby boy named Seth from Congo but they have yet to see him in person.

Since the adoption, the couple have been working hard to bring Seth, who is now one-year-old to Canada, but they are caught in the middle of immigration policies between their country and Congo.

Immigration officials of Congo have refused to issue an exit permit for Seth pending the issuance of a Canadian visa.

Canada immigration officials, on the other hand, have refused to give Seth a visa not until Congo can produce the exit documents.

Canada Lawyer News

Woman jailed for fraud amounting to about half a million dollars

Holly Jean Cardinal was meted with a three-year prison term following her guilty plea of having stolen $260,000 from a veterinary clinic wherein she was working as an administrator.

However, the Guardian Veterinary Centre was not the only employer that the 54-year-old Cardinal stole from because while she was working there, she was also undergoing trial for having embezzled $296,000 from her previous employer, the Allen Services and Contracting Ltd, where she had been working as a bookkeeper for a long time.

The judge found it aggravating that Cardinal continued to commit fraud with her new employer while she was undergoing trial for the same crime she committed from her previous employer.

In fact, she had pleaded guilty to those charges on the day she was asked by the vet clinic to leave under the suspicion that she was stealing from them.

The vet office, however, could not nail her for embezzlement for lack of evidence.

Cardinal confessed to stealing from the vet clinic while she was serving her sentence for her first fraud conviction.

Walter Raponi, a criminal lawyer in Edmonton, said that Cardinal resorted to stealing from her employers after she turned to gambling following a relationship that became abusive.

Calgary immigration lawyer said it is not over for his client yet

Posted Jun 30, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Legal options have not run out for Imam Abdi Hersy despite losing his refugee protection status, according to Raj Sharma, the immigration lawyer from Calgary.

Sharma said that Hersy will be appealing the decision handed down by the Immigration and Refugee Board at the Federal Court.

The board's decision is in relation to the sexual charges that Hersy is facing in Minnesota, USA, where he used to work as a respiratory therapist in 2006.

At that time, Hersy came to Canada and successfully got himself protection as a refugee of Somalia.

The Canadian Border Services Agency, however, accused Hersy of mispresentation and worked on stripping him of his refugee status in 2013.

The agency succeeded but Hersy appealed his case to the Federal Court which sided with him.

Sharma said Hersy hopes for a repeat of that compassion that the Federal Court had shown him then.

Hersy had maintained his innocence against the sexual allegations and that issues with his immigration had kept him from proving he is not guilty.

Man refutes murder allegations

Posted Jun 29, 2015 on www.cbc.ca

Kevin Rubletz is denying that he had a hand in the death of his former girlfriend, Jessica Newman, whose body was found in May.

Newman was first reported missing in March before her body was found in a ditch.

Rubletz and Newman shared a child and had been reportedly locked in a custody battle.

Calgary criminal lawyer Brendan Miller is representing Rubletz, who is facing a second-degree murder in relation to Newman's death.

Miller said that he is still waiting for the disclosure from the Crown and that there is a possibility that his client will be seeking bail.

Man imprisoned for dangerous driving

Posted Jun 26, 2015 on www.edmontonsun.com

Brandon James Hudson was meted with a prison term of two years and seven months after admitting to dangerous driving causing bodily harm.

Hudson also pleaded guilty to hit and run, stealing a vehicle, not stopping at the scene of an accident, breaches and assault.

Four people were injured as a result of Hudson's antics.

The Edmonton resident, however, does not remember any detail of what he had done to have been slapped with the several charges as he had been too high on drugs at the time of the incident.

Despite the non-recall, Hudson gave a nod to all the facts presented to him and even apologized for what he had done.

Hudson will have a year and a half to serve his sentence after he was credited for time spent in custody while awaiting trial.

Woman sentenced to prison for injecting silicone into other women's butts

Posted Mar 26, 2015 on www.vicnews.com

Marilyn Reid received an eight-year prison sentence for using silicone oil in performing butt lifts on her women clients without their knowledge.

Earlier in January, Reid had submitted a guilty plea to eight counts of aggravated assault.

According to the sentencing judge, Reid put the lives of her clients in danger without thought to their safety because she was only thinking of the profit that she would be getting.

Reid deceived her clients by promising them that she would be injecting PMMA, a substance that could only be acquired through the black market anyway because it is not approved for cosmetic surgery by Health Canada.

Four of Reid's five victims suffered serious injuries. Medical practitioners also had a hard time in treating them because they had no idea what was injected into their butts.

The Crown had asked for between 10 to 12-year sentence while Toronto lawyer Calvin Barry countered with 30 months.

Reid, however, will only be serving a little more than five years because the judge credited the time that she had spent in custody.